By AmyLee
I’m left thinking that whoever was guest guru in the past for the songs with great intros topic had it easy! Great intro, if you don’t like the rest of the song, fine, move on to the next one. But not so with outros / codas. You have to (in theory) make it through the body of the song to get to the ending bit. A difficult balance for an artist to manage, to keep listeners engaged until the end. And make it worth it to them. Surprising (or not) how many outros are studio accidents or experiments.
Pretty tame A-list, I surprised myself. But then again it’s a lot to ask of listeners to stick through a list of potentially long, loud, tedious, or artistically self-indulgent tunes. And mileage varies about what constitutes those. After listening to all of the songs posted with endings of various degrees of creativity, I am also going to have to agree with contributor Maki (and the Landlord in the intro piece) that a by-rote fade-out is a lazy-assed way to end a tune. At least one potential A-lister got kicked to the B for a too obvious slacking off to fade at the last second.
Many tunes on the B-list could have easily been As. I left out many, many big A-list-or-bust faves too big for the B, which I mostly prefer to keep for lesser known or quirkier tunes. Thanks to all
The Fin A-List Playlist:
Emerson, Lake, and Palmer - From the Beginning
There was a bit more to these guys than bombastic synth prog. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. I had a coin toss choice between two relatively short and quiet acoustic-based Greg Lake pieces with Keith Emerson moog outros. The better known, very influential Lucky Man has a trad-folk feel (and tell me the moog guy on Funky Worm didn’t hear this). This one is even more spare, a slightly melancholy jazz-ish tune. (BanazirGalbasi)
Rolling Stones - Time Waits For No One
Swan song of the great Mick Taylor, who left us a closing guitar solo for the ages. A blues guy, this one has a jazz type vibe and was his own personal favorite. Some of their better post-Exile lyrics, the Stones were feeling their age. (They were all of around 30 at the time.) My favorite line - “Time can tear down a building, Or destroy a woman’s face”. Have you checked the mirror lately, my dudes? Taylor’s playing fortunately doesn’t drown out Nicky Hopkins’ piano sparkling in the outro. That funny tapping throughout is Ray Cooper on percussion keeping time to mimic a ticking clock. (Nicko)
Jacksoul - Unconditional
Smooth jazz-tinged soul from a new to me Canadian outfit. Come for the gorgeous vocals that end up in Philip Bailey territory. Stick around till the end for the sax solo, with a bit of organ and some whispered time-keeping vocals over the last minute or so. (pejepeine)
The Beatles - Long, Long, Long
Always a treat to be reminded of why George is my favorite Beatle. What a vocal performance. The long long longing in his voice sends me all aswoon. Wait, you want to tell me it’s about religion and not a woman? La la la I can’t hear you. Surprise accidental ending sounds sort of like a temple bell. (LoudAtlas)
boygenius - Revolution 0
Gorgeous tune by a supergroup trio of female singer-songwriters. There’s an outro, it even says so in the lyrics. But it’s so seamless it’s hard to notice, the song just gets progressively even more beautiful. (TarquinSpodd)
Olivia Cheney - A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Based on the book of the same title, and beautifully produced by Doveman to showcase Cheney’ vocals over a nicely spare piano. The outro is a snippet of the Irish (? - origins vague) oft-performed Molly Malone sung by Cheney and backed by a harmonium drone. (severin)
Lana Del Rey - A&W
Song begins as a lovely folky acoustic with relatively unaffected vocals on her usual themes. But around halfway through it starts to segue into a trap beat and picks up some spoken singsongy repetitive vocals. Whether or not it’s about smoking coke or something else altogether, she makes it sound like a mantra. (barbryn)
The Beatles - Rain
Them again, singing about Brits griping about the weather. Swoony, woozy psych pop perfection. John smoking weed and playing the tape backwards is what qualified this tune for the list. The lead guitar work got them on it. Ok, the drumming, bass, and vocals are pretty good too. (ShivSidecar)
Richard Hawley - She Brings the Sunlight
More woozy psych, but with a definitely heavier vibe. Possibly the British Hawley was feeling gloomy because sunlight. But it seems that it was actually the Tory government tearing down a forest that put him in a mood. Psych guitar through the whole tune, but kicks it up a couple of notches with a few stops and starts after the last verse ends. I will admit to wrestling with this one, as I haven't convinced myself that it’s an actual notable outro. Maybe it’s just an ending. Lord knows I love a psych guitar ending, but after 500 of them, they all tend to sound a bit the same. Maybe less is more. This was the tune that wouldn’t leave my head. (Maki)
New Order - Every Little Counts
Didn’t have a laughing New Order on my bingo card. Granted, it is kind of a demented little laugh. Very VU tune, pisstake I reckon. Stops a bit more than halfway through and then launches into a shimmering outro. Be sure to stick around to the very end though. My agnosticism about these guys might be mitigated a bit now. (ParaMhor)
Velvet Underground - Ocean (Peel Slowly and See)
I had a choice of two very different versions of this one. My own guideline removed the live version choice, double the length of this one. Well worth a listen anyway. This one is very quiet, with the outro rolling in like gentle waves. Love the chimes sounding snippet towards the end. (Uncleben)
Beach Boys - Wind Chimes (2001 Smiley Smile Remaster)
Oh my. Many songs have a cappella endings / outros, this one is more or less a cappella throughout. Until, as Olive says, the “ghostly voices drop away” at the end. Otherwise, I don’t think I can find the words to describe this minimalist bit of sublimity. (OliveButler)
Ride - Vapour Trail
Sun shining through the window now, and this gorgeously joyous slice of shoegaze convinces me that springtime must be almost here. Instruments fade out one by one near the end. (untergunther)
Yes - Starship Trooper
Upbeat collaged prog tune incorporating a variety of musical styles that was basically constructed in the studio. Situations like this were a part of the reason I didn’t want to consider live versions this week - Yes was never able to play it live the way it was recorded. Outro is a repetitive, soothing chord section which perhaps approaches tedium until Steve Howe rips into a final guitar solo. (ajostu)
The Stranglers - Down in the Sewer
Nope, didn’t forget a keyboard outro! Relatively restrained list so far, it seems to be missing a banger. Here ya go. Same sort of issues in this prog punk (?) tune as in Yes above - a song under a single title, but composed of different named parts. This one has 4, but i’m still calling it one tune. Dave Greenfield epically goes to town on the outro, which i’d say is Parts C and D, or maybe just D? Or maybe the bonus gurgling water and squealing critter sounds for the last half minute. Just glorious. (happyclapper)
Jimi Hendrix Experience - House Burning Down
We seem to be missing a big freakout outro. Jimi’s musical response to the Watts Riots will more than do. How did he do that? “On some records, you hear all this clash and bang and fanciness,” he answers. “But all we’re doing is laying down the guitar tracks, and then we echo here and there. We’re not adding false electronic things. We use the same thing anyone else would, but we use it with imagination and common sense. Like in ‘House Burning Down’, we made the guitar sound like it was on fire. It’s constantly changing dimensions, and up on top that lead guitar is cutting through everything.” (George Boyland)
Billy Hallquist - Middle Lothian Folk Band
Not all fade out endings are the same. That’s not silence after around 1:00, you’ll have to keep turning up your volume. (Don’t forget to turn it back down again! As I found out the hard way.) (Fred Erickson)
Emerson, Lake, and Palmer - From the Beginning
The Rolling Stones - Time Waits For No One
Jacksoul - Unconditional
The Beatles - Long, Long, Long
boygenius - Revolution 0
Olivia Chaney - A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Lana Del Rey - A&W
The Beatles - Rain
Richard Hawley - She Brings the Sunlight
New Order - Every Little Counts
Velvet Underground - Ocean (Peel Slowly and See)
Beach Boys - Wind Chimes (2001 Smiley Smile Remaster)
Ride - Vapour Trail
Yes - Starship Trooper
The Stranglers - Down in the Sewer
Jimi Hendrix Experience - House Burning Down
Billy Hallquist - Middle Lothian Folk Band
Big Beginning of The End B-List Playlist:
The Move - Do Ya (Shiv Sidecar)
Strawberry Children - Love Years Coming (ParaMhor)
Abba - Chiquitita (Uncleben)
Cowboy Junkies - Ring On the Sill (Fred Erickson)
Roxy Music - Sentimental Fool (magicman)
Television - Guiding Light (Nicko)
Microdisney - Hey Hey Sam (Carpgate)
Garolou - Le Condamne (Marconius7)
Echo and the Bunnymen - Porcupine (Shoegazer)
Fad Gadget - Back to Nature (pejepeine)
The Guess Who - No Time (AltraEgo)
Beatles - Cry Baby Cry (magicman)
The Decemberists - I Was Meant For the Stage (tincanman2010)
Jackie Levin - Working Alone, A Blessing (TatankaYotanka)
King Creosote - Camels Swapped For Wives (Maki)
Oasis - Whatever (ShivSidecar)
David Bowie - Suffragette City (ParaMhor)
The Race Marbles - Like a Dribbling Fram (TarquinSpodd)
Stevie Wonder - Too High (magicman)
Ice-T - New Jack Hustler (magicman)
System of a Down - Aerials (Shashvat Shukla)
GBH - Unanswered Prayers (Carpgate)
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Parallel Universe (LoudAtlas)
Lynyrd Skynyrd - Free Bird (SweetHomeAlabama)
Guru’s Wildcard Picks:
The Smiths - Death of a Disco Dancer
Rolling Stones - Child of the Moon
Rolling Stones - Sway
Rolling Stones - Let It Loose
The Bevis Frond - House of Mountains
These playlists were inspired by readers' song nominations in response to last week's topic: How does it end? Songs with notable outros and codas. The next topic will launch on Thursday at 1pm UK time.
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